Friday, April 25, 2014

INTERVIEW: Tinnean

This is the very first time we've ever had a guest don a hat while in *HELL* Please welcome the amazing Tinnean!Hello Tinnean and
welcome to The Hat Party! <3 Thank
you so much for subjecting yourself to the RANDOMNESS that is a Raine O'Tierney
interview! Please don your best hat, and let's get started!
Thanks so much for
inviting me, Raine! This is so much fun! I don’t usually wear hats, but when we
were down in the Caymans a few years ago, I did don one to ward off the
Caribbean sun. This was taken in Hell. ;-)

You have three words, describe your writing dreams.
Best-seller list.
(I’m easy, ARe, NY Times, USA Today, even my local newspaper. *whistles
innocently*)On a scale 1 (super chill) to 10 (falling apart at the
seams) how cool are you under the pressure of blurb writing?!
On a good day I’m
about a 5. On bad days… well, let me just say a lot of teeth-gnashing and hair-tearing
is involved, not to mention the throwing of profanity at the computer screen. Why yes, I do have a hate/hate relationship
with blurbs.If you could go back and speak to your 13-year-old self,
what would you say?
Keeping a journal
is a great idea, but don’t leave it laying around on your night table. Find a
better place to hide it.A genre-specific virus has attacked you, rendering you
INCAPABLE of writing your chosen genre. What do you do now?!
I can’t *not*
write, so I’ll go back to writing f/m (my female characters are strong women
and give the men a run for their money) until a cure is found.Describe yourself using song lyrics.
When I was seventeen, it was a very
good year...Tell me your zombie apocalypse survival plan.
I guess that
depends on if we’re facing The Walking
Dead or George Romero’s Night of the
Living Dead zombies.
If it’s the
latter, I’ve got a stockpile of pills, and I’m checking out. *cough*
If it’s the
former, well, since we live in SW Florida, we have storm shutters, so I’d make
sure they were up as soon as possible. (Unfortunately, for the back of the
house we have Armor Screen, which zombies could probably get around. Then it’s
a matter of waiting for them to break open the sliders. *shudder*) We’ve got a
case of water in the garage, and there’s water in the spa for the toilets.
(being careful to slip out when no zombies are around, since it’s outside the
Armor Screen.) There are boxes and cans of food in the pantry and pizza in the
freezer, and we have a propane grill on the lanai with a full spare tank in the
garage, which is attached, so no having to venture out for that. For defense, we’ve
got a handgun and ammunition, walking sticks, and a couple of golf clubs. Hey,
if they worked for Daryl and Beth, I’m willing to give them a shot. There are a
couple of large knives for worst-case scenario.

You have 200 words—Make. Me. Swoon. (PLEASE!)
“I always wondered what being married would be
like.”
“Uh… yeah?” Where was he going with this?
“I’d… I’d like Harry to be my best man.”
“Okay.” Was he trying to tell me that, in spite
of our agreeing to do away with condoms, he didn’t see a future for us? That he
intended to leave me eventually for a woman?
I’d been so miserable without him; how could I
bear it if... Fuck it. I’d hold onto him for as long as I could, make him as
happy as I could, and put off the time I would be miserable again for as long
as I could.
“I want you to know that I’ll always come back
to you.”
“What?” He’d leave me to marry some woman,
unknown as far as I could tell, and then come back to me when he got tired of
living the straight life? Could I live a life like that? “Wills…”
“Dammit. This isn’t coming out right.” He
turned, took my hand and brought it to his mouth, then dropped to his knee.
“Marry me, Theo? I know it wouldn’t be considered legal, but marry me anyway?”What is your most irrational fear and what makes you
inexplicably happy?
Are you sure you
want to know? Okay, okay, my most irrational fear is that the boogey man is
going to get me. If you’ve seen the original Halloween, the scene where Michael
Meyers morphs out of the darkness behind Jamie Lee Curtis. Yeah, that’s the
one. To further illustrate what I mean, my son did that to me when I’d gone
down to the basement to do laundry. I turned around and there he was right in
my personal space, and I almost had a heart attack.

As for what makes
me inexplicably happy, babies—human babies, ducklings, chicks, bunnies, pups,
kittehs. And of course finishing a book and signing a contract.

Worst mistake you’ve made in your career and what you’ve
learned from it?
I signed a
contract for my first novel, and it said nothing about when the rights revert
to me or if they ever do. Now I make sure there’s something in the contract
that assures me what I’ve written will become mine again in a few years.And finally, for THE most important question of all: what
kinds of dachshunds are the BEST kinds of dachshunds?
Is this a trick
question? They’re ALL the best!

~ ~ ~

Giving up a life as rent boy Sweetcheeks for his
lover, William Matheson, was an easy decision for Theo Bascopolis. But years of
selling his body and the lingering pain from being thrown out by his father
leave Theo worried that Wills, who’s always had his family’s acceptance, can’t
truly love him. Life has taught him love isn’t for rent boys, and he’s having a
hard time tearing down the walls he built around his emotions and trusting that
Wills sees beyond his past.

Despite Will’s reassurances, he leaves for an extended assignment with no
contact, giving Theo too much time to think about the future. A message
arrives, and as far as Theo is concerned, it proves him right. Maybe it’s too
late to protect his heart, but he’s not going to hang around waiting for
Matheson to stomp all over it. Theo runs, breaking all ties to his former
lover.

When Wills returns to an empty apartment and no sign of his lover, he wonders
whether Theo really wants to be found and if they are meant to be together
after all. But they’ve been through too much, and Wills always gets his man.Available from DreamspinnerI was in
my office, working on the tax returns for Tim and Cris, when the house phone
rang. “Theo Bascopolis, accountant at large. How may I help you?”
“Theo,
it’s Vincent.”
“Vince?
What’s—Wills?” Vince never called
during the day, and I felt my insides twist. Since I’d learned what Wills
really did, I’d started dreading a call from his boss. “Is he all right?”
“Yeah,
he’s fine.” I sagged in relief. “I sent him to take a nap.”
“Huh?”
“He was
busy with work.”“Oh, got
it.” Wills had called early the day before to let me know he was working
through the night, and I’d brought him dinner. “So what’s the skinny?”“Paul’s
in trouble.”It was a
good thing I was sitting down, or I’d have wound up on my ass, but I still had
to swallow a bunch of times before I could speak. “What... what’s wrong?”“Spike’s
missing, and I’m flying out to deal with it. I need a favor.”“Oh,
Jesus…. What can I do?”“I have a
kitten—”“You do?”
The thought of Vince with a kitten was kind of adorable. I remembered how cute
he’d been with Miss Su. “Since when?”“Since…
Theo, is that really important?” He sounded impatient, and I felt dumb for
letting myself be distracted.“No, I
guess not. I’m sorry.”“Can I
leave her with you?”“Sure.
You want me to come pick her up? Just leave the key—”“No!”“Geez!”
From the way he reacted you’d think I was volunteering to walk into a minefield
instead of his home. “You don’t have to be so jumpy!”“Look,
you know where my condo is.”“Sure.” As well as those
times I’d worked there with Delilah Carson, for a few weeks this past fall, I’d gone to Aspen Reach to oversee it
being refurbished... the walls painted, the hardwood floors refinished, and the
arrangement of the furniture. I’d had the best time, and I was pretty sure
Vince was happy with the results.“Meet me
there, okay? Wait for me outside the gate.”Like I’d
be able to get in—there were no guards there who I could charm into opening the
gate for me. Which I wouldn’t have done anyway, since I was an engaged man.
“I’m leaving right now.”“Thanks,
Theo. I owe you.”“Vince,
you don’t owe me a thing. You gave me Wills! And besides, you’re doing this for
Paul.” And I knew how much Paul meant to him.“I’ll see
you in about fifteen minutes.”“Okay.” I
hung up, got my jacket and keys, and turned to my own kitty. “I’m going to
bring a visitor home. Watch the house, okay?”“Mrrow.”“Good
girl.”I went
down to the garage, got into the Corvair, and backed it out, scraping the
driver’s side door again. Stupid narrow driveway. Although…
Maybe I should take lessons?**I’d only
just arrived at Aspen Reach when Vince pulled up to the gate, and it swung
open. He drove through, and I followed him to his building and parked behind
his car. “I don’t
have much time,” he said as he used a keycard through the swipe lock to unlock
the door to the lobby.“That’s
fine. You haven’t heard anything else, have you?”“No, but
I know someone who knows someone on the CIA
set, and I’m going to call him as soon as I get to LA.” Spike had
been thrilled when he’d gotten that part on the TV show, the friend of a
computer geek who hacked into an important lab’s mainframe. We’d all been
thrilled along with him. It was his first role following his appearance in the
slasher flick slated to open over the Independence Day weekend. Even though the
movie hadn’t been released yet, insider word praised Spike’s performance, and
the CIA showrunner had been
interested enough to give him a screen test.Vince
headed for the stairs. I’d never known anyone who preferred stairs to the
elevator the way he did, but if that was what made him happy…“I know
you’ll want to talk to Paul, but do me a favor and wait for him to call you.
He’s been up for almost twenty-seven hours, and I told him to get some sleep.
I’ll have him call you when I get there.”I touched
his shoulder. “Thanks, Vince.”“Don’t
make a big deal of it.”“Okay.
But Vince? Thank you.”We
climbed up to the third floor, and he took out a key ring with a bunch of keys
on it. He inserted one key after another into the six locks on his door. That
was new; at least they hadn’t been there last fall. Something else I didn’t
understand, but it wasn’t my business, so I didn’t say anything.“Come on
in.”I
followed him in and glanced around.“I have
to say we did a great job on this place.” And I was pretty damn proud of it.
“It’s so much less… pink.”“Yeah, it
is, isn’t it? Pita!”“That’s
your cat’s name?”“It’s
temporary. I’m giving her to a friend’s mother for Mother’s Day.” He stuck his
pinkies in the corners of his mouth and whistled.“That
isn’t the way to call a cat!”“No?” He
laughed as the cat appeared and bounded toward us.About the Author:Tinnean has been writing
since the 3rd grade, where she was inspired to try her hand at epic poetry.
Fortunately, that epic poem didn't survive the passage of time; however, her
love of writing not only survived but thrived, and in high school she became a
member of the magazine staff, where she contributed a number of stories.It was with the advent
of the family's second computer – the first intimidated everyone – that her
writing took off, enhanced in part by fanfiction, but mostly by the wonder that
is copy and paste.While involved in
fandom, she was nominated for both Rerun and Light My Fire Awards. Now she
concentrates on her original characters. Her novel, Two Lips, Indifferent Red received honorable mention in the 2013
Rainbow Awards.A New Yorker at heart,
she resides in SW Florida with her husband and two computers.Ernest Hemingway's words
reflect Tinnean's devotion to her craft: Once writing has
become your major vice and greatest pleasure, only death can stop it.She can
be contacted at tinneantoo@gmail.com, and can be found on Live Journal: http://tinnean.livejournal.com/,
@tinneantoo on Twitter, and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tinnean

I love getting to see into the author's world and catch a peek of personality. This was a fabulous view.

This book series looks great, the cover art is eye catching and the subject matter compelling, I can't wait to read it.

Thanks for sharing your views on the past and goals for the future. I especially loved your choice of songs. Lots of tunes today are dramatic or over the top but a classic like the one you chose is all about measured expression and subtlety. It probably says a lot about your style of writing that you prefer substance over form.

Don't Miss a Single Interview or Giveaway!

Meet the Hostess!

Raine O'Tierney is an M/M romance author who loves celebrating other authors, asking probing questions about dachshunds, and generally supporting the creative process! Plus she thinks hats are worth throwing a party over!